Hyundai Confirms Plans For 250-Mile Range EV by 2020

May 24, 2016Madeline HaynesComments Off on Hyundai Confirms Plans For 250-Mile Range EV by 2020

Hyundai is stepping into the all-electric vehicle game with both feet.

The automaker confirms it will build two new electric vehicles in the next four years. The first one will come with a 200-mile range and arrives in 2018. The second will offer a 250-mile range and is expected in 2020.

Range is a big deal when it comes to EVs. These days it’s not enough to just build them, you have to build ones that can travel long distances on a single charge. Most of us go under 40 miles a day, but there seems to be that lingering question of what-if that is driving customers, and thus automakers, to push for an EV that can go more than the distance required for a routine day.

The 200-mile model should class as a hatchback size sedan. The 250-mile model is anyone’s guess though. But even these scarce details though are enough to get us excited. With ranges hitting the 200-mile mark and up, both models will leave the Hyundai Ioniq EV, due later this year, in the dust. The Ioniq runs in the 110-mile range, which is the new “going” acceptable battery range in 2016.

Both the new models fall into Hyundai’s plan to bring 26 new eco models into its lineup by 2020. These two are all-electric, but the offerings will include hybrids and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, too. TheIoniq alone will get three variations of those models: a plug-in hybrid, standard hybrid, and EV version.

Right now, Tesla offers 200-mile and up range on the Model S and Model X. The Chevy Bolt will offer a 200-mile range when it launches late this year. We can also look for more affordable options to hit the market from 2018 onward. That’s when the 2018 Nissan Leaf is expected to offer a range boost up and over the 200-mile mark as well. Ford is also planning its 200-mile range vehicle somewhere in the 2019 timeframe.

Audi and Volvo will both offer their first all-electric vehicles by 2019.

Porsche is bypassing the 200-mile mark entirely. It’s first EV will be the 300+ mile Mission E due in 2020.